Lenora Jayne - Illustrator, Designer & Creative Dilettante » Fashion

Spring Fashion – Jean Paul Gaultier

Lenora Jayne — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:30:15 +0000

I have a thing for stripes, you see. So, here’s another experiment in colored pencils, inspired by the fantastique Jean Paul Gaultier and his spring presentation. Never heard of him? He was the mastermind behind the costumes in The Fifth Element!

Check out the collection here: Jean Paul Gaultier, S/S 2011

Spring Fashion – Gareth Pugh

Lenora Jayne — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:00:20 +0000

Reigning king of avant-goth fashion, Gareth Pugh, has been one of my favorite designers since I first saw the strange, architectural dress that Róisín Murphy wore for her “Overpowered” shoot. Love!
I really liked his spring presentation in white, a departure from his usually noir-heavy collections, and I thought I’d play around with the architectural styling using cut-paper, which was painted with gouache. Next time, I’d seal the bottom layer of gouache with a matte medium, before applying the cutouts, because it definitely bled a little color as I stuck on the pieces (it’s kind of funny to airbrush blemishes on your own painting). Fun, though!

Check out the collection: Gareth Pugh S/S 2011

Spring Fashion – Christian Dior

Lenora Jayne — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:36:11 +0000

I’m tempted to draw just about every look in this collection. Dior’s deliciously tropical (ooh, do we see a reoccurring theme, here?) Spring line is reminiscent of 50′s-era pinup girls in a technicolor South Pacific dream. I love the flouncy skirts and GIANT cat-eye sunglasses. The line avoids looking costume-y, and manages to seem fresh while still nodding respectfully to it’s inspiration.
The illustration was done on toned brown paper and gouache, then cut out and glued into my sketchbook, because I wanted to clean up the edges and make the bodies more simple and implied. There will be more paper cutout and gouache coming tomorrow, I had a lot of fun with this technique!
See the rest of the line at Style.com: Christian Dior S/S 2011

Note:

I wrote this post earlier in the week. And, for those of you who read the news, I might note that while I think Galliano is a brilliant designer, I in no way support or stand behind his recent and reprehensible behavior. Ugh!

Spring Fashion – Nicolas K

Lenora Jayne — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:37:30 +0000

I love dressing up with minimal effort, and Nicolas K’s spring presentation exemplified this with their loose, nomadic knitwear. Dresses that get you dressed in one fell swoop, without any uncomfortable bits or architectural underwear needed to keep it polite. Gorgeous.
While sketching this one out, I really liked the roughness of the pencil lines and decided to go with it, and ended up scanning and coloring in Photoshop. Usually, I really hate working with graphite because it’s messy and dirty looking, but I think it’s appropriate for the soft, rough-and-tumble feel of the design.

Spring Fashion – Manish Arora

Lenora Jayne — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:37:11 +0000

If there’s anything I love, it’s craziness and color. And Indian designer Manish Arora has both in spades; his style strikes me as both futuristic and lushly tropical at the same time. This spring collection wasn’t one of my favorites, but I definitely appreciate the inspired color palette. Lots of coral red, neon yellow, and ultramarine blue (which is my new favorite color, after pink, of course). This one is done entirely in Illustrator, and was an experiment in working with less clean, precise linework to convey the energy that the look has.

Check out the inspiration: Manish Arora Spring 2011 at Style.com

Spring Fashion – Betsey Johnson

Lenora Jayne — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:57:18 +0000

Another fashion illy! Done in Illustrator/Photoshop today, so I could get those neons.
This one is based off of a look from Betsey Johnson’s collection for this spring season.
Bicycle-inspired fashion with her trademark ruffles and outlandish colors. I love it. Makes me want to get a bike! I bet I wouldn’t get run over wearing a getup like this, eh?
Check out the full collection at Style.com: Betsey Johnson – Spring 2011

Spring Fashion – Y-3

Lenora Jayne — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:56:54 +0000

Spent the other afternoon browsing through the Spring 2011 fashion collections, to confirm some of my suspicions for this upcoming seasons trend (and also, for a little inspiration in building out my wardrobe!). And decided to pick up the pencil and mess around with my fashion illustration skills. This drawing is inspired by one of the opening outfits from Y-3′s Spring 2011 RTW collection, and is done in marker and india ink. I love this line’s clean, graphic looks. It came out a little comic-book-y, and I need to practice simplifying and stylizing for fashion, so there might be more of these on the way!
Check out the full collection at Style.com: Y-3 for Adidas – Spring 2011

Fashion & Art: Magritte Edition

Lenora Jayne — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:53:17 +0000

“Life imitates art, more than art imitates life.” (Thanks, Oscar Wilde.)

But as much as I love when art and fashion intersect, there are just some things that don’t translate.
These weird open-toed sandal boots remind me of Magritte’s painting, “The Red Model” more than the classical Greco-Roman era that they’re supposed to evoke. Gross!

Alexander McQueen

Lenora Jayne — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:15:16 +0000

I was shocked this morning, to find out on Twitter, that one of my favorite artists took his own life. I normally wouldn’t blog about this sort of thing, but it feels very personal to lose a figure that has been a creative inspiration of mine from a very young age.

Alexander McQueen was one of the reasons I dreamed of being a designer as a kid. I imagined the entire fashion world as this wonderland full of confectionery dresses and claw heels and butterfly hats, and I was so, so inspired by his endless imagination and vision.
McQueen was never just a designer to me, but an artist who sculpted in the real world to create fantasy characters that women could embody and wear.

It’s hard to hear that someone so unbelievably talented could be struggling enough to take his own life, and even more tragic to lose such an incredible revolutionary.

“When I’m dead, hopefully this house will still be going. On a spaceship.”
-Alexander McQueen in LOVE Magazine

(via DailyMail.co.uk)